Monday, February 23, 2015

Here's a trip through Day 1 of the Heavy MTL Montreal Festival on Saturday August 9, 2014.

We walked a few blocks from our hotel to the Metro and we were about three stops from Parc Jean-Drapeau on the island where the festival was being held. We were there in about 10 minutes. Got there about noon and had to wait in line about 20 minutes. They had a good system in place and it moved pretty quick.

On the map below we came in right by the top of the pool and walked around the park counterclockwise checking out the two stages in the back and working our way around to the two huge side by side main stages.

Caught a song by Eagle Tears on the Scene stage on this initial trek.

When we got to the main stage, Baby Metal was on. As you can see there was already a helluva crowd there, but it was nothing compared to what it would grow to by the time Metallica would headline that night.

Next up was one of my favorites...the mighty Overkill. They did a killer, but short 8 song set.

Setlist:

Deny the Cross

Rotten to The Core

Electric Rattlesnake

Ironbound

Armorist

In Union We Stand

Elimination

Fuck You

This was the live premiere of "Armorist" but the highlight for me was "In Union We Stand." I've seen Overkill many times,but I haven't seen them bust out "In Union We Stand" in easily a decade.

Lots of tattoos on display. This dude had an intersting mix of Metallica, Genesis, Pink Floyd and Nine Inch Nails.

I hadn't seen Pennywise in a long time since some Warped Tour probably in the 90's. Great Set. I dug the mix of metal and punk at this festival.

Dropkick Murphys are always fun and they played a killer cover of AC/DC's "T.N.T." on this day that killed.

Setlist:

The Boys Are Back

Citizen C.I.A.

Black Velvet Band

Don't Tear Us Apart

Which Side Are You on?

Prisoner's Song

Going Out In Style

Jimmy Collins' Wake

Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya

Rose Tattoo

T.N.T.

I'm Shipping Up to Boston

Anthrax did a classics filled set.

Setlist:

Among The Living

Caught In A Mosh

Got The Time

Indians

In The End

Madhouse

Fight Em Til You Can't

I Am The Law

Antisocial

Their tribute to Dio and Dimebag drew many cheers from the crowd.

God bless scary Smirnoff girl...at this point it was ridiculous trying to go get drinks or food. We claimed a tiny patch of grass on the hill to watch the rest of the bands. If you got up, it would be filled in seconds.

The Offspring were up next and performed all of their album "Smash."

After the "Smash" performance they encored with :

All I Want

You're Gonna Go Far Kid

Why Don't You Get A Job?

The Kids Aren't Alright

The Offspring totally could have headlined this festival. The, at this point, gigantic crowd LOVED them and it seemed just about everyone knew the words to just about every song. I kinda dig The Offspring but never knew they were this popular.

This guy got everyone's attention. He climbed up there. Sat and had a cigarette, then climbed down into the waiting hands of security.

It's hard to describe the size of this crowd by the time Metallica came on. My guess would be 100,000 (it would be probably half that the next day.) This was Metallica's only North American show last year and lots of people traveled to it like we did.

Now I've been to shows with more people, for example the two Woodstock Festivals in '94 and '99, but here EVERY INCH OF SPACE was filled so it just seemed more immense. You could turn around 360 degrees and not see an empty space anywhere.

Metallica is another band I've seen a bunch of times and this was one of their "By Request" shows.

We got a pretty good setlist - only a couple here I really didn't want to hear at all:

Blackened

Master of Puppets

Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

Ride The Lightning

The Unforgiven

Lords of Summer

...And Justice For All

Sad But True

Fade To Black

Orion

One

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Battery

Nothing Else Matters

Enter Sandman

Encore:

Creeping Death

The Four Horsemen

Seek & Destroy

So overall...a long hot helluva day. Only complaint...way way too crowded by around 6pm. The cool thing, I didn't see one fight or any drunk assholes. Just a cool bunch of metal heads.

A lot of people just came to this first day for Metallica. The next day had about half the crowd (which was still impressive) and honestly the hang that day was way more enjoyable because of it. Not sure which day I would say had a better lineup. Both had some favorites as well as some cool new bands I discovered. Saw bits of quite a few other sets this day, but I evidently didn't snap any shots (day 2 also made it easier to get some great up close photos)

Sunday, February 22, 2015

It seemed no one was sure what to fully expect on this night and in the end we all got a cool surprise beyond our hopes.The show was billed as "That Metal Show Live" which has hit the area before. It features Eddie Trunk with co-host comedians Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine. It's a night of stand-up comedy, story telling, Q&A and "Stump The Trunk". This is not a taping for the tv show.The questionable part of the show was just how much Jackyl would be a part of it. On the Starland Ballroom website in small letters by the listing for this show it said "plus special interview with and performance by" and then it had a TINY Jackyl logo.Jackyl were playing a headlining show at Revolution in Amityville (yep of the "Amityville Horror" fame) the next night and some of the crew going had missed Jackyl (not I...check out that review and photos by clicking here) back in September in there last pass through the area, so they wanted to make sure it wasn't just say an interview and maybe two acoustic songs.In the end some of us couldn't do Saturday, so we headed down to NJ after work on Friday and hoped for the best.Well it was a good sight when we walked in and saw the full Jackyl stage setup with backdrop. It was definitely going to be full band electric and hell you know they're not gonna just play two songs, So we grabbed a couple of beers and waited for the show to start at 8:30.The front of stage area was blocked off and set up comedy club style with long tables for those who bought reserved seat tickets. There were probably about 80 to 100 people with these reserved seats and maybe about that many more (like us) with general admission who either stood behind that section (maybe 20 feet from the stage) or right up on the side. I couldn't help but think if it was known that Jackyl would be doing a full performance that more people would have turned out, but it allowed me a primo spot right up against the stage when Jackyl came on so I guess I shouldn't complain.The night started with a opening comic whose name I'm afraid I missed. He did about 10 or 15 minutes. Eddie Trunk then came out and did about 15 to 20 minutes. He told some stories about how he got the "That Metal Show" gig and how Jim and Don almost ruined it with the "reel" they submitted to be approved as co-hosts featuring an "upper decker" (Google it if you need more info.) He had stories about drunk bowling with Ace Frehley and how they choose the bands that make it on TMS. Fun stuff.He finished and welcomed up Don Jamieson who did about a 20 minute set and then Jim Florentine followed with about 20 to 25 minutes. Both of their sets were hilarious. If you're not following Jim's "Comedy Metal Midgets" podcast on iTunes (it's free) you're missing out kids.All three then came back on stage and brought out Jesse James Dupree of Jackyl for about a 10 minute interview. Jesse then left the stage to get ready for Jackyl's set and they did a 5 to 10 minute general Q&A with the audience before ending their time with about 15 minutes of "Stump The Trunk" where, if by chance you're not familiar with the show, audience members attempt to stump Eddie with questions about Hard Rock and Metal. If you stump him you reach into the prize box and pull out a random CD or DVD.I ended up being second on line and figured I'd try and stump Eddie with a Kiss question since he's a Kiss fanatic. Appears about half of those who had questions had the same idea as it was one deep cut of Kiss trivia after another.Now before Eddie opened up the Stump the Trunk section of the show he tried to lay down some ground rules of basically don't ask crazy three tiered questions, but in general, a lot of the questions were crazy and needed long multiple answers to get right.I have to be honest, I thought mine was pretty straight forward but Eddie seemed kind of exasperated when I asked it like it was one no one would possibly know off the top of their head. I was thinking afterward that maybe Eddie is a huge fan of Kiss's music but not the merchandising. Either way, basically part of the fun of "Stump The Trunk" is to get Eddie riled up with ridiculous questions or answers he thinks is wrong, but you can't deny...the guy has some knowledge...he pulled out some ridiculously multilevel answer about the soundtrack to Wes Craven's "Shocker" from the 80's. Who the hell would know that shit? Eddie Trunk!

My question was something like "Eddie, I have a Kiss question for you - We all know the first appearance of Kiss in a comic book was in Marvel's Howard the Duck series. What was the issue number they first appeared in?" Eddie just was like "I don't know...52?" and I told him it was #12. I know wonder if he would have known if I just asked what series they first appeared in. I'm pretty sure that's a giveaway for most fans.(By the way, they appear on the very last page of #12 and they are in all of #13. These two issues came out in the 70's just before the famous Marvel Kiss comics which included the band members blood in the red ink)I reached in and won the "Only To Rise" CD by Sweet & Lynch. Michael Sweet of Stryper with George Lynch. I think it came out last month and not something I picked up yet but did want to check out...so cool!So anyway, that was how the TMS part of the show went...pretty damn good so far and a nice teaser for the actual studio taping of "That Metal Show" I'll be going to on March 3rd, which after years of trying I was able to get tickets for this season's third show. Not sure yet who the guest will be, but we've tried getting tickets for years and it will be cool to attend a taping no matter what. Now I just have to think of another question for Eddie. I think I got one, that is more straight forward and hopefully I'll get picked to ask and you'll get to see me on the show when it airs on Saturday March 7.Jackyl hit the stage at just after 10:30 and ended up doing a full 90 minute set complete with very cool special guest!Jesse, Jeff Worley (guitar), Roman Glick (bass) and Chris Worley (drums) are one of those bands that never disappoint both in showmanship and what the crowd wants to hear. Their newer stuff, that maybe not as many people know as say the first album, is just as catchy, kick ass and rockin as those classics and they always play those classics as well.I was a bit too busy rockin out at this show to take notes on everything they played but the first hour or so of the set included all of this:My Moonshine Kicks Your Cocaine's AssScrewdriverDown on Me When Will It RainI Stand Alone Midnight Rider (The Allman Brothers Band cover)Secret of the Bottle Dirty Little Mind / Better Than Chicken and maybe 2 others I'm blanking on right now.

Then they announced the special guest - DMC of Run-D.M.C.!He came out and they did Run-DMC's "It's Tricky" followed by a cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way"! It was very very cool! You'll see I have a bunch of great photos from the show below (click on them to supe rsize) but none of DMC as I took video of those two songs. Click here to watch the DMC portion of the show!

DMC left the stage to much applause and the band ended the night with Redneck Punk, She Loves My Cock and of course The Lumberjack (complete with chainsawing of the stool which we all got a piece of and got autographed after. It will sit proudly on my shelf)

And before I go, let me say the last three times I've seen Jackyl, they come out to the merchandise booth within 15 minutes of the last song and take pictures and sign autographs for everyone. They chat, shake hands and always seem so damn pleased to meet their fans, not like it's something that's part of the job. Just super cool great guys. I asked if there would be a new season of "Full Throttle Saloon" this year and they said it was up in the air right now and they're trying to work it out. Also got some inside gossip for fans of the show that evidently no one quite currently knows the whereabouts of Fajita Mike, but rumor is he's working in a diner in North Carolina.So below are pics from the show. Go on over to the Most People Are Blank Facebook page by clicking here and join/like/follow to keep up on all posts as well as giveaways for followers (we've given away autographed Jackyl photos in the past...I could see that happening again shortly). Also go there and feel free to comment. Thanks all - Rock on and Enjoy - Paul